June 6, 2018

Our approval often finds itself rooted in our perspective. The things we look to, the things we seek after, and the things we strive for often either feed or take away from our feeling of approval.

If your goal in life and the thing you push towards is your financial security, then the balance of your bank account will feed security and approval into your life. If your goal is a large social network, then the level of your friendships and the amount of associates will determine whether or not you feel approved. We all set these fictitious standards and goals for ourselves and our accomplishment and the approval we feel comes from our ability to meet them.

This means when you’re going good, you feel great, but there is always that uneasy feeling that you might fail. Then when you have failed, when you haven’t made it to your goal or when you don’t get what you need you are left feeling unworthy, worthless, and completely unapproved.

The beauty of this passage if that God gives us a new perspective. He gives us a new goal and a new standard. He gives us Jesus.

You’ll never live up to it. You won’t ever be worthy of it. You can’t ever compare. Yet this is infinitely better for us because where we always fight to attain our own standards and goal, this is one we never will. This is one we cannot attain and the yet we’re still approved. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrectio,n we are now approved. We are now welcomed. We don’t meet the standards and we don’t measure up, but our acceptance has nothing to do with us. Our acceptance is based solely and primarily on the work Jesus did in our place.

You are approved. You didn’t earn it. You can’t lose it. You are approved.